Speaker Mike Johnson told GOP lawmakers that he’ll try to pass four measures this week to send aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan — each in separate bills, according to multiple Republicans in the private Monday meeting.
A fourth proposed bill, which is still being finalized, would include a package of related measures, including a lend-lease deal for military aid, a ban on TikTok in the U.S. and provisions to sell off assets seized from Russian oligarchs.
It’s far from certain that Johnson would have the votes to bring the bills to the floor, given the procedural hurdles of Republicans’ narrow majority that have vexed the speaker for months. Johnson would need near-unanimous support from his own conference to bring the whole package of bills up for passage, a procedure known as a rules vote, plus prior approval from a Rules Committee stacked with conservatives who may resist based on Ukraine aid.
Earlier Monday, hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus released a statement saying they opposed using necessary cash for Israel to “ram through Ukraine aid.” And several members of the group declined on Monday night as they left the closed-door meeting to say if they would support bringing the bills to the floor at this point.
“The American people have made it as clear as they possibly could … that we better secure our border before we spend more money in Ukraine. They are getting ready to fly off the cliff,” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said. Conservative Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Bob Good (R-Va.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) each also declined to say if they would vote to bring the package to the floor.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), another Freedom Caucus member, said that he “likes that it’s separate bills.” But pressed if that meant he would help bring the package to the floor, he demurred: “We haven’t even seen the bills, I mean good grief.”
If even a handful of conservatives oppose the rule vote, then Johnson would need Democratic support to move forward — and it’s incredibly rare for the minority party to assist on those rules votes. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to comment Monday on whether he expected his caucus would support the package: “We’re not going to come to any conclusion about process until we understand the substance.”
Other GOP members are already drawing red lines that Johnson is unlikely to meet because they would threaten to sink Ukraine aid in the Senate. For example, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said Republicans should incorporate language that mandates the Senate vote on a House-passed, conservative-favored border security bill before it can take up a Ukraine aid package.
“I think the Senate should have to take a vote on our border security legislation before we are just giving a blank check,” Gaetz told reporters, adding that his idea got a positive reaction within the meeting.
Plus, Johnson has a looming threat to his speakership, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) vowing to force a vote to oust him. She said Monday that she hadn’t made a decision on when to triggering that process, but that she’s “firmly against the plan as it stands right now.” She called it “another wrong direction for Speaker Johnson.”
“He’s definitely not going to be speaker next Congress,” Greene said, adding it was “to be determined” if he would even finish out this term. No GOP lawmakers have explicitly said they would join Greene in voting to boot Johnson.
Republicans are still waiting to see when Greene will follow through with her threat to fire Johnson, who brushed off the chance that the foreign aid strategy will lead to his potential ouster.
“I don’t spend my time worrying about motions to vacate. We’re having to govern here, and we’re gonna do our job. I’m not sure how that shakes out,” he said.
The speaker also told members that there would be amendment votes included in the package, though it’s unclear what those would be. Notably absent from his proposal: any measures to address border security, which Republicans have demanded for months. Conservatives said they would push for amendment votes on border security policies as part of the House’s debate.
“There’ll be a possibility for amendments. But the question is how many — they’ll have to be germane,” said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.). “But let’s face it, he had to make the play call. And I think he’s made a very good play call, given the totality of the circumstances where the world is right now.”
The speaker said he’s committed to abiding by a House rule that gives lawmakers a full 72 hours to review the legislation, once it’s finalized. That would likely push passage votes to Friday evening.
If the House passed more than one of the four bills, it’s unclear if they would be packaged together before heading to the Senate. While GOP lawmakers said the upper chamber would have to take separate votes on each piece of legislation, Johnson told reporters after the meeting that he hadn’t yet decided whether to send whatever bills pass over as a comprehensive package.
It’s unclear if Johnson has Senate support for his proposal, given the upper chamber’s leaders are continuing to insist on their own bipartisan version of foreign aid legislation that combines cash for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
“We’re discussing whether they would be merged together in one package that’s sent to the Senate, or if it goes over as individual measures. My personal preference is to do it individually, but we’ll let the body decide. We’ll have further discussion on that in the morning,” Johnson said.
Katherine Tully-McManus, Nicholas Wu and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.
